I'm still trying to figure out where that jacket he's wearing came from. Never seen one like that before. @sneakypete
@Bigun Hard to tell from the photo,but it looks like the SF version of a "jungle fatigue jacket". Most were issued to the VN or "yard" indigenous people that units like Delta Force and A teams lead on patrols,but some were made in MUCH larger sizes to fit the American SF "advisors".
IIRC,we (SF) had them made on Okinawa at first,but the manufacturing might have been moved later in the war.
What IS odd about that photo is that NO conventional US unit was authorized to even HAVE "VN Jungle fatigues",never mind wear any of them.
And we all know for a fact that Goober NEVER went on even ONE patrol outside of camp,never mind went in with SF and indigenous troops on a patrol or raid.
I SUSPECT that someone purposely gave him that item of clothing to further prove it was a staged photo op. It just doesn't fit in with the pants or the bush hat he is wearing.
AFATG,conventional infantry units didn't even wear bush hats. Only SF and recon teams from conventional units wore them. Some were OD in color like the one in the photo,and some were the VN camouflage pattern like the shirts and pants.
Which is another clue this was a staged photo event because there was no way in HELL that goober was going to go out on a long range patrol looking for the enemy with only 5 people with him.
For those who don't know,the size of a standard recon team was 6 members. This is because that was all that would fit into a Huey once they had all their gear on.